Hartland to Capitol Hill
Subtitle: the journey of a wounded healer
By: Mary Gunderson ; co-written by Ernie Gunderson
Contributors: Gunderson, Ernie, author
Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc.
Published: 2011
Place of publication: St. Cloud, Minnesota
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
ISBN-13: 9780878395781
Copyright date: 2011
Subjects: Mental illness; Biography; Mentally ill; Family relationships; Suicide; Parent and child
Description: "The daughter of Danish immigrants, Mary Gunderson tells the heartrending tale of settling in rural Minnesota just before the Great Depression. She describes her checkered career as a country school teacher in the 1940s, which ends in a crushing nervous breakdown. She goes on to marry a farmer and raises eleven children, two of whom succumb to mental illness and suicide. Mary's recovery from this tragedy begins when she volunteers to start a chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in her hometown, becoming a personal and political advocate for others suffering from mental illness. After disclosing her experience of mental illness and the family tragedy at a national forum, Mary was invited to Washington to tell her story to congressional delegates on Capitol Hill"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-228).